A Biblical Foundation for Understanding חסד (Chessed)

Today we started working on what חסד (chessed, sometimes translated as “lovingkindness”) means. We turned to the Torah and read Genesis 18:1-8.

Here are a few snippets from our conversation after the story:

“Why did Avraham call himself a servant?”

“Who were the men who came? Were they strangers or not strangers?”

“What if they were bad guys?”

“Even if they were bad guys, they would be nice because Avraham did something nice for them.”

What details of the story stand out to you?

The story of Avraham and Sarah’s kindness to strangers was the biblical opening to our new theme: צדקה וחסד (Tzedakah VaChessed). Some children know צדקה (tzedakah) as, as one boy said, “giving money to people who need it.” We’ll be exploring ideas of צדקה and חסד through the next eight weeks.